Before the electric rice cooker was invented, rice was cooked on a kamado, a large stove built in a corner of the kitchen. To boil rice on a kamado, first a fire is started using firewood. Next, a pot containing the rice and water is placed over the fire. The taste of the rice depends on the strength of the heat used to cook it, but controlling the fire in a kamado is tricky. Cooking rice used to be quite a chore; one would have to watch over the fire from early in the morning in the smoky air. There's even a rhyme about the right heat for cooking rice. It goes: "Hajime choro choro, naka pappa, butsu butsu iu koro hi o hiite," which instructs the cook to begin at low heat, then increase the heat, and then lower the heat again when the inside of the pot begins to bubble.